Onegaishemasu
by Kozmotis Pitchiner
Summary: Some people go through life with a big red target painted on their back. (HS human AU; no pairings.)
1. Hajimeru

Monday mornings are supposed to be sluggish and boring. Everyone is still in that sleepy, lazy "weekend mode", right? Wrong.

Just ask Doug Lintman of apartment 656.

Mr. Lintman hated Monday mornings more than anything. Not because they were Monday mornings, not because they were a cruel end to a nice weekend, not even because he had to get up and go to work after two days of relaxation. No, Mr. Lintman hated Monday mornings more than anything because of his neighbors in apartment 657—the Hamatos.

The noise started at 6:00AM, like clockwork. Dishes clattered, doors slammed, and those damned boys would always start shouting at each other, disturbing Mr. Lintman's attempts to watch the morning news. Every Monday morning for the past two months had played out the same—the noise would start and, eventually, Mr. Lintman would get fed up, stomp out of his apartment, down the hallway a ways, and hammer on the door of number 656 with his fist. On this particular morning, the skinny one with purple glasses answered the door.

"Oh, good morning, Mr. Lintman!" he said, too cheerfully. He ducked to avoid a soccer ball flying over his head. "Didja sleep well?"

"Would you four quiet down?!" Mr. Lintman yelled. "I'm tryin' to have breakfast in PEACE!"

"Sorry about that, Mr. Lintman," said Glasses. "Things are just a little hectic. Heh, Mondays, y'know? Wha—MIKEY! GET AWAY FROM THERE!" The kid dashed off, quickly replaced by his stockier brother.

"See you next Monday, Mr. Lintman!" he said, before waving cheekily and slamming the door, leaving Mr. Lintman fuming in the hallway.

"Ha! Good one, Raph!" Mikey yelled, from his spot on the floor. Donnie had him pinned flat on his back, trying to pry his Nintendo 3DS from Mikey's hands.

"Yeah? Why don't you tell him that next time?" said Raph. He stepped over both of them and went into the kitchen, where Leo was sitting at the counter, trying to eat Lucky Charms with one hand and finish his chemistry homework with the other. He looked up when Raph entered.

"Raph! Can I see your—wait, what am I even saying?" Leo shook his head. "You didn't do your homework."

"Nope," said Raph, taking the carton of orange juice out of the fridge. Ignoring the clean glasses in the dish drainer, he took a swig straight from the carton and wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. "Ask Donnie for his."

"No way!" said Donnie. He had successfully wrestled his precious 3DS from Mikey, and now joined his brothers in the kitchen, combing his hair back into place with his fingers. "You have to do your own work, Leo. If you throw that I'll break your fingers," he added, glaring over his shoulder. Mikey lowered the water balloon, looking disappointed.

"Where does he keep getting those?" Raph asked in disbelief. He snatched the balloon from Mikey and tossed it into the sink.

"That's for me to know, and you to never find out," Mikey said in a sing-song voice. He skipped over to the refrigerator and took out the orange juice. He went to take a drink straight out of the carton, but Donnie grabbed it from him and poured him a proper glass. Mikey shrugged, took the glass, and went over to peer over Leo's shoulder. "What are you trying to do, anyway?"

"Get that juice away from my papers," Leo snapped. Mikey raised his free hand in the universal "whoa, calm down bro" signal and backed off. "I didn't get to finish this assignment last night. I just had so much other work to do! What kind of twisted institution expects us to spend six hours on homework?!"

"What kind of person actually takes six hours to do their homework?" Donnie asked. "I finished mine in half the time."

"Yeah, well, you're a nerd, Donnie," Raph said. He was sitting on the counter, eating dry Froot Loops right from the box. "I don't even look at the assignments anymore. The whole system is fucked up."

"That's no reason to not try at all," Donnie said, adopting his "brotherly disapproval" tone. "If you need help, I'll help you. Help you, Leo, not do your work for you," he added. Leo slumped over on his stool.

"If I'd known it was going to be this hard, I wouldn't have pleaded with Father to put us into public school," he said sadly.

"Uh, guys," said Mikey. "Hate to be the one to put a damper on this party, but if we don't leave right this second we're gonna be late for school."

"What?!" All three of his brothers looked around at the clock. They had exactly twenty minutes to get to school, and they would have to run all the way. Raph jumped off of the counter and ran from the kitchen, leaving the box of Froot Loops open beside the sink.

"Raph!" Donnie yelled. "At least put the cereal away!"

"No time for that!" Raph yelled back. He sped past the kitchen again, throwing Donnie and Mikey's backpacks at them. Leo crammed his incomplete homework into his backpack and slapped Donnie on the shoulder.

"Come on, man, just leave it," he said. "Let's go." Donnie sighed, and followed his brothers out of the apartment.

**XXXXX**

* * *

They made it into their homeroom with ninety seconds to spare. It would have been two minutes, but Raph and Mikey had wasted thirty seconds trying to get in at the same time, inevitably getting themselves stuck in the doorway and holding up Leo and Donnie. In the end, Leo elbowed them both in the back and they toppled over, allowing the taller boys to simply step over them into the classroom. (This wasn't an uncommon occurrence.)

Mikey was still laying facedown in the doorway when the bell rang. Mrs. Margolin nearly tripped over his legs, and she did not look amused.

"Michelangelo, this is not acceptable behavior," she said, peering sternly over her glasses at him. Several students giggled. "Stand up."

Mikey scrambled to his feet. "Sorry, Mrs. M. I was momentarily crushed beneath the weight of my backpack. Too much homework. But I'm okay now!" He grinned at her, and practically sprinted to his seat. Jack, a skinny boy who sat next to him, gave him a high five. Mrs. Margolin frowned.

"The next time you pull something like that, it'll be detention," she said. Mikey shrugged. "I don't care for your attitude, young man." She glared at him for a moment, then walked to her desk and opened the attendance folder. As she started reading names, Leo leaned over to whisper in his neighbor's ear.

"Psst, April, can I copy your chemistry homework?"

"Why didn't you do yours?" she whispered back, nonetheless pulling the assignment out of her backpack and handing it over.

"I just didn't have enough time," Leo replied. "Not between helping Dad at the pet store, taijutsu practice and all the work from my other classes."

"That's a lot of weight to put on a teenager's shoulders," said April. Leo snorted, copying the equations as fast as he could write legibly.

"Tell me about it."

"Why not go back to homeschooling?"

"Ha, yeah right. Like that'll happen."

"Leonardo!" Leo looked up and found that Mrs. Margolin and about a third of the class were staring at him. "Are you here, or aren't you?"

"Oh. Uh, yeah, I'm here, Mrs. Margolin," Leo said meekly. "Sorry."

He was saved from a lecture by the classroom door opening again, and a girl with short dark hair entering. She paused for a moment, looking imperiously around at the other students, then went up to Mrs. Margolin's desk and handed her a late slip.

"They messed up my registration up in the office," she said. Mrs. Margolin looked over the slip.

"Karay?" she asked.

"Karai. It rhymes with Thai."

"My mistake. Well, then, go ahead and find a seat and as soon as I finish taking attendance I'll get you a copy of the syllabus and participation agreement."

Karai nodded, turned and made a beeline for the vacant seat behind Leo.


	2. Chapter 2

"I'm pretty sure it's illegal for them to call this pizza," Mikey said, poking at the rubbery slice on his tray. He looked deeply insulted by the mere sight of it. "Is this even real cheese?"

"It's mozzarella," said Donnie.

"I knew it wasn't real cheese!" Mikey exclaimed. He pushed his tray away and crossed his arms. Donnie and Raph exchanged looks, but decided against informing their brother that mozzarella was in fact a cheese, and the same kind of cheese that Pizza Hut used. It would only set the stage for an argument. Instead, Donnie unhelpfully pointed out that they wouldn't have had to get the cafeteria lunch if Raph had packed their lunches the night before like he was supposed to.

"Listen here, you little—" Raph started, pointing a threatening finger at Donnie, but Leo put his hand on Raph's shoulder.

"Settle down," he said. "I'll pack the lunches from now on, Donnie."

"No, you're already struggling with your workload. I'll do it." Donnie started to take a bite of his pizza, thought better of it, and tossed it into the trashcan at the end of the table.

"I'll figure it out eventually," Leo said. "We've only been in school for seven weeks...I've got time."

"Time for what?" someone asked. All four brothers looked up in surprise—no one ever came over to eat with them. April had sixth period lunch, and pretty much everyone else ignored them.

But lo and behold, there stood the new student in their homeroom, Karai. She was smiling at them. "Mind if I sit?"

Raph started to say "Yes", but Leo cut across him, saying, "Oh no, go ahead."

"Thanks." Karai sat down beside him, and took a brown paper sack out of her backpack. She held it up with a slightly sheepish look. "My mom still packs my lunch. It's embarrassing."

"I'd give anything to have a home-packed lunch right now," Mikey said, throwing the cafeteria pizza a disgusted look.

"I think I'd rather eat that chunk of cheesy rubber than a soggy ham-and-cheese-on-wheat bread sandwich," said Karai.

"Here, have mine," said Leo. He slid his tray over to her. "I could stand to cut a few calories out today." Not really true, but not exactly a lie either.

"Thanks." Karai smiled. "What are your names, by the way? I didn't catch them in homeroom."

"I'm Leo, that's Donnie, Raph and Mikey." Leo pointed at each of his brothers in turn, and Karai nodded and smiled at them. She had a weird smile—Leo couldn't quite put his finger on it, but there was something off about it. Maybe she's just nervous, he thought.

"So you're new here? Where did you move from?" Donnie asked.

"Nowhere, I was just homeschooled up til now. My parents are kind of overprotective," said Karai. "I convinced them to let me go to public school, though."

"Really? Us too!" said Mikey. "It's our first year here." Karai smiled again.

"Great, so you totally get how I feel!" she said. She reached across the table and fist-bumped Mikey. "It's kind of a shock, right?"

"Yeah, it gets worse, though," Raph said. "The first two weeks were great, now it's just hell in the neat disguise of a textbook."

"Stop exaggerating, Raph," Donnie said, rolling his eyes. "If you would just try to do the work, I think you'd find that it's not all that bad."

"Sure, sure." Raph waved a hand dismissively. He turned to Karai. "As you can see, Donnie here is what we'd call a bona fide nerd. You don't see them much outside of their natural habitat, but they're bountiful within their territory." He gestured to the cafeteria. Donnie scowled.

"Really witty, Raph," he said. "What's your natural habitat? The sewer?"

Before Raph could come up with a good comeback, the bell rang. He got up and stomped away, leaving his tray and uneaten pizza on the table.

"Raph, aren't you gonna throw away your trash?" Donnie called after him, grinning. Raph gave him the finger and left the cafeteria. Mikey ran after him, yelling at him to "wait for me!" Karai stood up and slung her backpack over her shoulder.

"You coming?" she asked Leo. "I've got—" She glanced at her schedule— "history with Breckenridge next."

"Uh, yeah. I have math, but Ms. Eden's class is near Breckenridge's, so I'll walk you over there." Leo got up and put on his backpack. Karai tossed her uneaten lunch into the trashcan, and started to towards the cafeteria doors.

"So are you four brothers? Or what?" she asked.

"Yeah, brothers," said Leo. "Not biologically...but we were raised together."

"Really? What's the story there?"

"Nothing spectacular, I guess we got pretty close as babies and our dad wouldn't even entertain the idea of separating us. At least, that's the way he tells it." Karai chuckled.

"That's cute," she said. "You guys do seem pretty close." Leo shrugged, not willing to respond to the comment. He wasn't very keen on letting Karai in on his life so quickly. Luckily, they reached Ms. Eden's room soon enough that the silence didn't become awkward.

"Here's my class," he said. "Breckenridge is three doors down."

"Thanks." Karai paused, then gave Leo another smile. "Maybe we can hang out after school? Like, a little impromptu study group?"

"Sorry, we have to head straight to our dad's pet store after school. We work there," said Leo. "Maybe another time." Karai looked disappointed.

"Oh. Yeah, okay. See you later, I guess."

* * *

The four brothers sat squished together on the crowded bus, trying to take up as little room as possible. They always sat in the same spot, in the same configuration—Leo, then Mikey and Donnie in the middle, and Raph rounding off the far end of their miniature row. That was the way they always sat in public, no matter where they were. They had figured out the arrangement years ago; Mikey was never on the edge because he was the smallest, and his oversized hoodies hid his well-toned muscles...people tended to pick on him. Donnie wore glasses, and that made him a natural target for some reason. Leo and Raph always sat on the outside because they looked the hardiest. Of course, all four of them could kick a lot of ass if push came to shove, but they'd been taught to avoid unnecessary conflict. (Not a rule that Raph followed closely.)

None of them said anything. It was practically impossible to hear each other in any case; the bus was loud, the cars and trucks around them were loud, and the passengers were louder. They'd be wasting their breath. Mikey stuck to playing his Gameboy Micro (he wasn't allowed to have a DS), Donnie to his book (this week it was the Lord of the Rings trilogy), Raph just crossed his arms and looked sullen, and Leo was the one who kept an eye out for their stop.

Speaking of which, the bus was just pulling up to it. Leo nudged his brothers, and they trooped off of the bus.

"Mikey, put that away," said Donnie. Mikey's eyes were still glued to his game, even as they wove through the crowded sidewalk.

"But I'm in the middle of getting my sixth badge!"

"How many Pokemon does she have left?"

"...three." Donnie rolled his eyes.

"Turn it off, Mikey." He opened the door to the pet shop, standing back to let his brothers past. "You can fight her later."

"Hi, welcome to Tang Shen's Pet and Sup—oh." Maggie, one of only two other employees, turned back to the shelf of bird feed she was stocking. "I thought you were actual customers."

"If I was, I would've run in the opposite direction at the first sight of that face," said Raph.

"Suck my dick," Maggie replied mildly. Raph laughed aloud and tossed his backpack behind the register.

"Better not let my dad hear you saying stuff like that," he said. He pulled his apron out from underneath the counter and slipped it on over his head. "Where is he, anyway?"

"He and Viri went to turn in some bill payments."

"Weren't those due yesterday?" asked Donnie.

"Yeah, but you know how he gets distracted. One of the rats looked "a little lonely" yesterday."

"They all look pretty happy now!" said Mikey. He opened one of the rat cages and filled up the food bowl, pausing to scratch the rat's head. "Did anyone ask about them today?"

"No, it's been pretty slow." Maggie leaned into the office and grabbed the inventory clipboard off of the wall. "We've had like, six customers in since we opened. Someone bought that little brown rabbit you liked."

"Aww, not Chestnut! I was gonna ask Dad if I could have him!" Mikey pouted, and Leo patted him on the shoulder.

"At least he found another loving home, Mikey," he said. "Come help me feed the fish."

"The lady seemed pretty nice. But what about you guys? How was school today?" Maggie asked.

"Leo got yelled at by a teacher," said Raph. Maggie glanced up from her inventory clipboard.

"Really? What for?"

"I was talking to April during homeroom, it wasn't a big deal," Leo said, glaring at Raph over the fish tanks. Raph gave him double pistols and a wink.

"Ooh, hardcore, badass," said Maggie. She rolled her eyes. "Is that the most exciting thing that happened today?"

"There's a new girl who used to be homeschooled just like us," Mikey said, just as the shop door opened again and the bell jingled. "I think she likes me."

"Who likes you?" asked Viri. She and Splinter entered the shop, back from their errands. "I like you."

"Nah, this new girl named Karai!" Mikey stuck his whole hand in one of the fish tanks, just to touch one of the snails. He did that every day when he fed the fish. The snail never did anything, though. Unfazed, he wiped his hand on his apron and grinned. "She totally digs me, know what I mean?"

"All she did was fistbump you, Mikey," said Raph.

"Yeah, but did she fistbump you?" Mikey asked, his tone defensive. "I didn't think so." Raph rolled his eyes.

"So you made a new friend today?" asked Splinter.

"I guess," said Leo. "She wanted to hang out after school, but I told her we had to work."

"Friendship is important, Leonardo," said Splinter. He touched him on the shoulder as he passed, and hung his coat on the rack in the very back of the store. "Don't be so quick to reject her."

"I'm not rejecting her," Leo protested. "I just have responsibilities to take care of that take precedence over socializing."

"You act too far beyond your age," said Splinter. "Why don't you invite her here tomorrow? We can always use an extra set of hands."

"Yeah, especially with the book signing and all," said Donnie. "Does she like dogs?"

"How would I know?"

"Everyone likes dogs," said Mikey. (Not exactly true—Splinter did not like dogs.) Leo looked up from the last fish tank. Everyone was looking at him, wearing expectant expressions and, in at least two cases, goofy grins. He threw up his hands in exasperation.

"Fine! I'll ask her if she wants to come to the book signing. But if any of you make even one allusion to us dating, I'll...I'll..."

"You'll what?" asked Raph. He looked smug, and Leo scowled hard at him.

"I'll make you regret it!" he snapped.

"He's not gonna do anything," Raph said in a stage whisper, then ducked as Leo threw the can of fish food at his head.


End file.
